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New to Artrage

Hey all,
My 11 year old daughter is an aspiring artist and we are buying her a computer for her birthday so that she can get ArtRage 5 and do art. Is there something that i absolutely need on the computer to make her experience better, such as touch screen or a stylus pen or does it work better with a mouse?
Any other thoughts would be appreciated.

Hello
Just to echo Dave, yes a tablet is a must I think.
I would always recommend a Wacom, but they are very expensive and primarily aimed at the Pro market.
Perhaps a Huion might be a cheaper alternative. I think quite a few users here have them. Maybe one of them will chip in here with recomendations…
As for the actual computer get something with as fast a CPU as you can afford as ArtRage is CPU intensive.
Next on the list I would say is as much fast RAM as you can afford.
Next an SSD hard-drive if possible, though not a must have.
As for the GPU, ArtRage doesn’t use it that much. I think it would only really be important if you were using multiple large high definition displays, but that seems an unlikely need for an 11 year old!

I've always used something called Genius Mousepen. It's a tablet that comes with mouse and pen. At the time I got it, it was $30 new, considerably cheaper than Wacom. I'm sure it's a lot more now. It's served me well. After a few years the pen died, but I was able to get a Huion pen on ebay for about $10 that works fine with it.

Since so many ideas were put forward, I'll just talk abut my rig. I have large a Wacom Cintiq (stylus not touch) and I love it because I can touch with my stylus exactly where the paint or line is meant to go. That is like how I learned and did for years before such technology was available. I never quite got into the tablets that were referring to the screen but you would touch down on your desk or in your lap and hope it went in the right spot up on the monitor. But with the Cintiq it's the best thing ever.

There are competitors out there too, not just Wacom. So you can look around. Not sure how much money you want to spent. But that's pretty much in the high end direction.

What a lucky girl any way you go.

"Not a bit is wasted and the best is yet to come. . ." -- remembered from a dream

Some time ago I run against a video (on the msft research) where the researchers demonstrate new monitor with a prism and video camera. When fingers or other things go close to the screen the camera see this through the screen and report their position. A think it is like semitransparent mirror.

Well, I clean it with one of those special cloths designed for wiping monitors without scratching them. They're fairly cheap at electronics stores. I like to keep the Cintiq clean that way so I don't scratch the monitor when I paint by removing grit from the air that settles on it. (crossing fingers) So far so good. I love it and take really good care of it.

As to the prism thing you mentioned, sounds intriguing. I don't know a thing about the mechanics of it. I'm only a user in that case.

Last edited by D Akey; 03-14-2019 at 07:19 AM.

"Not a bit is wasted and the best is yet to come. . ." -- remembered from a dream

I never quite got into the tablets that were referring to the screen but you would touch down on your desk or in your lap and hope it went in the right spot up on the monitor.

I've never had this problem and been using Wacom for nearly 20 years. I rarely look down on my tablet when working, the screen automatically tells me where my pen is, I never hope it goes in the right place, so to move it isn't a matter of looking down at nothing, just move it around a little ways while looking at the monitor. I can see though that Cintiq having the screen right there helps. Super expensive though
.....................

Hope this helps, Kierfer35, and I wish you all the best choosing. Your daughter's very lucky. I would do anything to be born in this day and age as far as tech goes, so very cool Cintiq isn't cheap, Wacom Pen Tablets less expensive, but like MaryLou said there are even cheaper ones around. Your daughter can start off with something simple and work her way up as she gets to know if this is what she loves to do.

IMHO, the tab's pen should be tested against pressure curve, e.g., at low pressure level the tab reports values in the range 0...80, I say it's a noise. When I press the pen down to max, the tab reported about 600...850, So I work with real 100...300 range. It's the standard problem — „All in the world is exponent“.